As much as we would like to believe that every child has an equal opportunity to succeed in this world, this is not always true. This faulty equity stems from a quirk in the school systems. The difference between a school system that flourishes and another that struggles comes down to one important factor: the amount of funding the school receives. The best schools around are the best in part because they are extremely well funded in comparison to the trying schools. This inequitable funding situation is exactly the issue that we need to address in our effort to reform public education. Funding, especially fair funding for all is essential to a well rounded educational pathway of opportunities. In our research we will focus on the factors of funding that are both fair and unfair, the role that money plays in education, and how the schools distribute their money and if this is equitable. The 2010-2015 RI Strategic Plan takes the stance it seems like they have always taken in regards to school funding which is that we need more of it. The plan states that Rhode Island will keep an eye on their funds in the schools systems and make sure that their money is allocated wisely so as to create student achievement, but is this enough? Our research will also address if monitoring our money and hoping that more money will create success is too much of a laid back approach. Perhaps there are other innovative techniques with more renovations of the school system that prove to get more bang for our buck.
Kiana
II. Description of Your Priority for our RI Strategic Plan
Fair funding in schools across Rhode Island needs to be a priority for the RI Strategic Plan. Without an equitable funding system, students of special needs or who struggle with language and cultural barriers will continue to struggle while students of priviledge climb up thier ladder of success. Of course Rhode Island wants our privledged students to excell in their academics, but it should be a priority for every child in our schools systems to have an equal opportunity at success. To make this possible, we need financial equity amongst the schools. With fair funding, students across the state will have the attention and resources that they need to improve their academic achievement level. Additionally fair funding will close the achievement gap in society as well as the learning gap in the schools. This is another reason why fair funding is a priority.
Kiana
IV. Research Summary
Lead Editor: Samantha
For Samantha's research, her question was Does money matter in Education?, she tried to find instances where the questions answer would be yes based on the situations schools found them in. She tried to find situations from around the country because it allowed those see her research to realize that these types of things are happening all over the country and they will continue to happen because there are people out there that like to doubt whether her questions answer would really be yes rather than the preferred no. For Adam's research, his question was Do schools distribute funding equally?, he wanted to find out what really was happening between the money and the districts. He saw that the districts with higher income taxes got more money from the government and districts with less income taxes got less money from the government. Adam also came across a term in trying to find equal funding for both richer and poorer schools, that would be PIPS or personal income per student and if that was used the student would have the money to use for their own schooling and it would be the same no matter what district you would be in whether the communities were rich or poor. For Kiana's research, her questions was What are the factors that make funding fair?, she wanted to find out whether the funding of schools in Rhode Island were equitable throughout the state. She says that the funding really isn't equitable between the urban and suburban areas in Rhode Island and in the urban areas they have restricted funding which hurt their test scores. She thinks that a good idea for schools would be to do what some have already have begun to do, Student Based Budgeting because then the money follows the students. It also allows for money to go to special needs programs as well as the money follows those students. Overall our research deals with the current problems in the funding system to day and how some ways could fix this for schools.
V. Group Project Overview
Our group project is on the Fair Funding in Education. We plan to go over each person's data, articles and what each person learned through our research of our topic. We will be going over each person's topic. Adam's question was, Do schools distribute funding equally? Kiana's question was, What are the factors that make funding fair? Samantha's question was, Does money matter in education?
During our presentation we will be going over what each person did and how they came to understand the answers to their individual questions and research. We will also be teaching the class on the importance of these things to the community in Rhode Island but also in places all across the country because these things are not only seen as needed and important to schools in Rhode Island, they are just as important to schools in other states, say Massachusetts or Connecticut.
During our presentation we will also be doing an interactive component that allows those in the class to find their own opinions on this material and truly understand the implications of their actions in the future, whether it effects their own children or the children of people they will never know.
VIII. Group Reaction/Opinion(s) about the issues related to this priority.
Overall our group has determined that school funding is not fair. We have determined that money does matter in education and funds are required to keep a school running efficiently and keep its students learning, however these funds are not distributed fairly across different types of schools across the country. Due to the ways schools receive money from the state through property tax, wealthier schools are able to receive more money for their students than urban schools. Because of this, school funding needs to become more equitable and be directed more towards the special populations of students found in urban environments. To make funding fair more money needs to be provided to these students because they would require more resources and help to receive the same quality of education a child would in an untroubled suburban environment. For this to be accomplished federal money provided by federal funds should be provided to districts not just by how much money the school needs to pay their teachers but it should be more based off of the schools populations and how much money the school requires to run special programs that aids students with special needs. Money should not be granted to a district and follow the schools but the money should be able to follow each student that needs the extra support most.
I. Description of Problem or Issue
As much as we would like to believe that every child has an equal opportunity to succeed in this world, this is not always true. This faulty equity stems from a quirk in the school systems. The difference between a school system that flourishes and another that struggles comes down to one important factor: the amount of funding the school receives. The best schools around are the best in part because they are extremely well funded in comparison to the trying schools. This inequitable funding situation is exactly the issue that we need to address in our effort to reform public education. Funding, especially fair funding for all is essential to a well rounded educational pathway of opportunities. In our research we will focus on the factors of funding that are both fair and unfair, the role that money plays in education, and how the schools distribute their money and if this is equitable. The 2010-2015 RI Strategic Plan takes the stance it seems like they have always taken in regards to school funding which is that we need more of it. The plan states that Rhode Island will keep an eye on their funds in the schools systems and make sure that their money is allocated wisely so as to create student achievement, but is this enough? Our research will also address if monitoring our money and hoping that more money will create success is too much of a laid back approach. Perhaps there are other innovative techniques with more renovations of the school system that prove to get more bang for our buck.Kiana
II. Description of Your Priority for our RI Strategic Plan
Fair funding in schools across Rhode Island needs to be a priority for the RI Strategic Plan. Without an equitable funding system, students of special needs or who struggle with language and cultural barriers will continue to struggle while students of priviledge climb up thier ladder of success. Of course Rhode Island wants our privledged students to excell in their academics, but it should be a priority for every child in our schools systems to have an equal opportunity at success. To make this possible, we need financial equity amongst the schools. With fair funding, students across the state will have the attention and resources that they need to improve their academic achievement level. Additionally fair funding will close the achievement gap in society as well as the learning gap in the schools. This is another reason why fair funding is a priority.
Kiana
IV. Research Summary
Lead Editor: SamanthaFor Samantha's research, her question was Does money matter in Education?, she tried to find instances where the questions answer would be yes based on the situations schools found them in. She tried to find situations from around the country because it allowed those see her research to realize that these types of things are happening all over the country and they will continue to happen because there are people out there that like to doubt whether her questions answer would really be yes rather than the preferred no. For Adam's research, his question was Do schools distribute funding equally?, he wanted to find out what really was happening between the money and the districts. He saw that the districts with higher income taxes got more money from the government and districts with less income taxes got less money from the government. Adam also came across a term in trying to find equal funding for both richer and poorer schools, that would be PIPS or personal income per student and if that was used the student would have the money to use for their own schooling and it would be the same no matter what district you would be in whether the communities were rich or poor. For Kiana's research, her questions was What are the factors that make funding fair?, she wanted to find out whether the funding of schools in Rhode Island were equitable throughout the state. She says that the funding really isn't equitable between the urban and suburban areas in Rhode Island and in the urban areas they have restricted funding which hurt their test scores. She thinks that a good idea for schools would be to do what some have already have begun to do, Student Based Budgeting because then the money follows the students. It also allows for money to go to special needs programs as well as the money follows those students. Overall our research deals with the current problems in the funding system to day and how some ways could fix this for schools.
V. Group Project Overview
Our group project is on the Fair Funding in Education. We plan to go over each person's data, articles and what each person learned through our research of our topic. We will be going over each person's topic. Adam's question was, Do schools distribute funding equally? Kiana's question was, What are the factors that make funding fair? Samantha's question was, Does money matter in education?During our presentation we will be going over what each person did and how they came to understand the answers to their individual questions and research. We will also be teaching the class on the importance of these things to the community in Rhode Island but also in places all across the country because these things are not only seen as needed and important to schools in Rhode Island, they are just as important to schools in other states, say Massachusetts or Connecticut.
During our presentation we will also be doing an interactive component that allows those in the class to find their own opinions on this material and truly understand the implications of their actions in the future, whether it effects their own children or the children of people they will never know.
Samantha
VI. Visual Representation
VII. Research Questions and Reference Summaries
VIII. Group Reaction/Opinion(s) about the issues related to this priority.
Overall our group has determined that school funding is not fair. We have determined that money does matter in education and funds are required to keep a school running efficiently and keep its students learning, however these funds are not distributed fairly across different types of schools across the country. Due to the ways schools receive money from the state through property tax, wealthier schools are able to receive more money for their students than urban schools. Because of this, school funding needs to become more equitable and be directed more towards the special populations of students found in urban environments. To make funding fair more money needs to be provided to these students because they would require more resources and help to receive the same quality of education a child would in an untroubled suburban environment. For this to be accomplished federal money provided by federal funds should be provided to districts not just by how much money the school needs to pay their teachers but it should be more based off of the schools populations and how much money the school requires to run special programs that aids students with special needs. Money should not be granted to a district and follow the schools but the money should be able to follow each student that needs the extra support most.